×

The AP comes under attack

In the past couple of weeks we have had some letters to the editor blasting The Associated Press. In fact, we even had a couple of folks announce they were going to cancel their subscriptions to The Maui News because we run stories from the AP.

The letter writers felt there was a bias in AP stories.

Well, The Maui News has used Associated Press stories for decades, as have most daily newspapers in the United States. The fact of the matter is that AP is the last remaining major wire service. Its major competitor for most of the last century, United Press International, has scaled back dramatically since 2000.

Most news organizations (including The Maui News) cannot afford to have their own reporters across the nation and around the world. For better than a century, those news organizations have contracted with a wire service to provide state, national and international news.

The Associated Press has reporters and/or editors in 100 countries and in some 263 locales. It is a not-for-profit news cooperative headquartered in New York City. It is 170 years old. It has won 52 Pulitzer Prizes. Its board of directors is made up of 19 news executives. The scale of the operations those board members represent range from The New York Times to The Santa Fe (N.M.) New Mexican.

There is certainly nothing in its board members that would reflect a shared bias — there are well-known liberal organizations and well-known conservative companies represented.

With 47 years in the newspaper business, we’ve been associated with over a dozen newspapers that used The Associated Press to provide worldwide coverage. And this is the first year we’ve seen the AP accused of biased coverage.

Despite what you may read and hear, there is no shared monolithic message being spread by the news media. Good reporters and editors are interested in gathering and presenting facts. That’s called journalism.

As best we can determine, The Associated Press and its staffers fully share that commitment.

* Editorials reflect the opinion of the publisher.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper?
     
Support Local Journalism on Maui

Only $99/year

Subscribe Today